Can Social Support Groups help you beat Cancer?

Being diagnosed with cancer comes as a shock to many as remorse and sorrow creep in. With so many plans underway; watching your kid(s) become the best he or she can be in life now can seem like a mere dream. Also, the dreams of graduating from college, going for that vacation, or moving into a new house may start fading away. Alternatively, you may not know how to react when you hear the news of cancer because of the agony you would had to go through. Both ways call for exuding strength from within, which is vital in fighting the cancer. It requires more than the many sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to emerge as a victor with an improved quality of life. That is why there is no need to suffer alone and to endure it all by yourself when joining hands can make a difference to yourself and those around you.

A problem shared is half-way solved, and there would be no better place to share one’s plight than with those who understand the problem too well. A social group consisting of cancer patients yields unprecedented results, but this does not mean that you cannot form a social support group with friends and relatives. Even though they do not have the disease, they cannot bear to see the suffering of a loved one alone.

Social support groups or even cancer forums are an effective strategy that can help you overcome your distraught, and your family members can gain the strength that will act as your leverage as you go through the aggressive treatment process. These groups enable their members to draw strength from each other because once an individual gives their powerful testimony, other members derive the hope that motivates them to get better.

Social support is an excellent avenue through which your family, friends, and relatives will get to know how to care and interact with you. It acts as food for the soul from where healing begins by buffering adverse effects associated with cancer. These groups enhance the effectiveness of the treatment process by reducing the negative outcomes associated with stress and in the process, there is optimal immune functioning. These groups are also a source of informational support as people share their views regarding issues as well as their personal experiences that can be used by others to overcome emerging obstacles. It feels good when you know that there is someone you can freely talk with about your fears and uncertainties because without realizing it, these fears and uncertainties vanish in the process.

In the advent of technology, in addition to having face-to-face interactions, social support can be formed through social media platforms. For example, Whatsapp, Facebook or Reachout, but it all depends on the highly accessed social media platform around you.

If you are not yet in a cancer forum, it is the time to join one. If there is none around you, you can become the torch bearer who lights the path for the others and those around you. By giving strength to others, you get it in return in superfluous quantity.

Sunil is the founder of Reachout, the App that is changing how patients gain social support for better health. Reachout is an innovative, personalized way users/patients are collaborating for better health today using just their cell phones. Reachout provides a support based social network for everyone facing life challenges, especially patients. Reachout is fast gaining in popularity and today, organizations like Mental Health America, doctors’ offices, counselors and numerous other websites recommend us to their users/patients.

You can read more about Reachout on our website : https://reachout.life